Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
Declan’s voice startles me. I remember how manic he was last night, how elated he was watching someone he called his familysomeone who loved him even if he didn’t love her backbleed out on the ground.
I remember seeing her blood on his teeth when he smiled right before he shoved his bloody fingers in my mouth. On instinct, I cling tightly to Luca’s arm. This one might be insane, too, but he thinks he loves me. Maybe he can protect me.
The older brother’s dark eyes drill holes through me. He looks like he wants to rip me apart with his teeth.
A smile spreads across his face as he breaks the gaze. “Why is everyone so sad? There’s nothing to be sad about. Smile, Brady,” he says.
“Um are you serious?” Brady asks.
“Have you ever heard me tell a fucking joke, Brady?”
Brady forces a half smile in his direction.
“Why don’t you guys understand that this is a celebration?” Declan says. “You know what? We’re having a party. I’ll call the others now. And where the fuck is Alana?”
“She went upstairs, Declan,” Hazel says.
“Well, go fucking find her,” he says. “I need to talk to her.”
He starts to leave the room, then turns back and points to me. “And you. You and I are going to have a talk later, too, Teagan,” he says. “Alone.”
“Don’t worry, Teagan,” Luca says casually. “He’s not going to do anything to you. He won’t make you go, either. Not now.”
I turn to reply and realize I’m still digging my nails into his forearm. When I release him, four little moon-shaped cuts fill with blood.
I remember what Layla said about what she’d done that upset Declan so muchshe’d drawn blood from him.
“Oh my god,” I say, panicking as I look from the tiny cuts to his face. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head and laughs. “It’s okay, Teagan. I’m not my brother.”
He runs his thumb over the deepest of the cuts and then wipes it on the inside of my lip. “See?” He leans forward and kisses my lips. “You should get her a bathing suit, too, Riv. Then she can go sit in the hot tub. It’ll help with your back.”
“My back is killing me, too,” Brady says. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“You both need to toughen up,” Luca says as he bites into his sandwich.
“I’m actually okay with not being in grave-digging shape,” Brady says, standing to leave the room. “I don’t want to bury any more of my friends in the backyard. And you need to give her some fucking space, Luca. Don’t love-bomb her. You’re scaring the shit out of her.”
“What are you talking about? Teagan’s fine,” he says.
“I actually just want to go lie down,” I say, testing the waters, “and rest. Maybe read a little.”
“I don’t think” Luca starts.
“That’s fine, Teagan,” River says quickly, shooting Luca a glare. “Go ahead.”
“Yeah okay,” Luca says. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Okay,” I say. Cautiously, slowly, I grab my coffee mug from the tablelike if I move too quickly, I might trigger him again and end up back in handcuffs. “Thanks for the coffee and the orgasms.”
His worried expression relaxes into a smile, and I feel relief.
“Anytime,” he says.
I close the door to Layla’s room and almost flip the lock before remembering how pointless it is. Then, I pull my aching body into bed, open Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, one of my favorites, and stare at the pages.
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I must have fallen asleep, because when River enters the room, it’s dark outside again. Her arms are lined with shopping bags, and she sets them all down at the foot of the bed.
“Wait until you see everything I got,” she says excitedly. “I hope you love it. I haven’t been shopping in forever. Oh, and this bag has a couple of bikinis in it if you want to get in the hot tub.”
“Thanks,” I tell her.
I watch her take out each item and hold it up for me; there must be thousands of dollars worth of designer clothes in those bags. And she’sor he’sjust giving them to me like it’s nothing.
I pick up a pair of black denim pants with slits at the top of the thighs. “I love these,” I say.
“Aren’t they cute?” she says. “I thought they looked like you.”
The price tag catches my eye$790.
“Holy shit ”
“They won’t even notice it,” River says. “Seriously, don’t even think about it. I spent a good amount of money on myself and Hazel, too. The woman following me around the store looked like she lost a bet or something when I pulled out that card, and it went through. It was hilarious.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
“People are going to start showing up soon,” she says. “I don’t know if you’re in the mood to party, but Declan wants to see the rest of us celebrating, so I’d better go.”
“I’m going to go get in the hot tub before they get here.”
“Luca is going to ask me if you’re okay.”
“I’m still processing this shit,” I tell her. “I watched her die, Riv. They didn’t try to help her, they didn’t cry. Declan was happy.”
“I’m sure that was hard for you to see. I know you don’t see life the way we do, but she chose to die, Teagan. Life is precious and beautiful, and death is just as beautiful. Those are the only two true magics on Earth. Try to separate what society tells you is true from what you saw with your own eyeswas there no part of it that was beautiful?”
I start to replay the scene in my head for about the millionth time. I see the elation on Layla’s face as she knelt in front of me, I see her float across the yard in a white nightgown, the moonlight reflecting off the knife in her hand. Her bloody smile when Declan laid down next to her in the grass and told her he forgave her.
If I think only of her and the agony she was in, I guess maybe I could see the beauty in it. She was the happiest I’d seen her, it was the end of her suffering.
In a way, it was pure.
But he didn’t tell her he loved her. And he didn’t weep for her. After two years together, he thanked her for dying, and he was glad.
All over spilled blood. Alleged power.
My heart pounds in my chest, and I quickly put the image out of my mind. I can’t think of death that way.
“Not to me,” I tell her.
“Well okay,” she says. “I’m going to go put on some of my new clothes. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay.”
She smiles and walks out the door, closing it behind her.
I change into one of my new bathing suits before quickly and quietly making it downstairs and out the door without anyone spotting me. Then, I sink into the spa on the back patio.
Just like Layla’s death, it’s peaceful without the context. Surrounded by dark forest and high mountains, I relax into the water, staring up at the clear night sky. You can see the stars here in a way you wouldn’t be able to on the clearest night in Southern California. The absence of both actual and light pollution almost makes it seem like I’ve stepped onto another planet.
Kind of like Declan’s book.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.